cherry brandy

[Hammerhead]

my grandfather is looking for a recipe to make a mash to make some cherry brandy

[greggholmes]

It,s just distilled cherry wine.  Mash up a bunch of cherries add some water and yeast. Wait awhile then distill. Check your laws.  For info use only: put it into a feezer proof container, freeze then pour off the good stuff.

[Bulldog lady]

Sounds a lot easier than recipes I looked up, Aged in wooden kegs and etc.  Years ago,  I spent many months and stores looking for kirsch to make a scottish cake. Come to find out it was only cherry liquor.  Use a lot of flavored liquors and some brandy in my cheesecakes but they are safe from the Badger, me I sticks to my Rocky Mt spring water

[c-wiseman]

Please be aware that any type of home distillation (not home brewing) is against the law. I only mention this because the first offense can bring a fine of $10,000! (yes, count all those zeros).

Personally I think it is a stupid law that is enforced strictly for the tax revenues. You can get an annual license to operate a small distillery, but it is thousands of dollars a year, plus the taxes on what you produce. Even freezing your cherry wine to increase the alcohol content, called fractional distillation and is how the colonist made their cherry brandy, is illegal. Although you would have to be caught red handed to get in trouble for this method.

Owning a still is not illegal, using it is. In my area police and firefighters who encounter distilling equipment are required to report you to the ATF

George Washington was a moonshiner, he made Rye whiskey, which he traded to the Caribean for tropical foodstuffs and sugar. I wonder what he would think if he encountered the ATF red tape of today.

[c-wiseman]

But if I were to try, I find a cherry wine recipe (cherries, water, yeast and time) let that ferment to the desired ABV%. If it were to go into a still, the end result would just taste like any unaged neutral spirit (distillation will remove all the cherry flavor, unless you have a gin still with a flavor bubbler on it). But if this wine was to be accidentally left in outside where it might freeze, then the frozen water discared from the increasingly alcoholic cherry wine, and if you were forgetful enough to do this several times. You could in theory reach a very high ABV%, retain the cherry flavor and give a wonderfully warming elixir.

All on accident of course! 

Chris
My grandfather bootlegged whiskey into Oklahoma from Missouri in the 40s and 50s

[pilgrim]

     Do I understand you correctly,  ANY HOME DISTILATION,    always thought a person could make their own, in small quantities, for their personal use, as long as they did not sell it.   

[c-wiseman]

Any home distillation is illegal in the US.

Essential oils stills are legal, but of a size that they could not be economically produce beverages (distill one shot at a time).

The personal use clause ONLY applies to home BREWING, making beers and wines, home distilling is a no no, and claiming that you thought it was legal for home use doesn't get you any leniency.

You can have a fuel still, which can be used to power a vehicle that does not leave your farm (you do not count as a vehicle)but you need a special permit from ATF, and you have to put something in the distillate that makes it unsuitable for humans and the ATF reports the increased fire hazard of distillation to your insurance.

[William]

Do I understand you correctly,  ANY HOME DISTILATION,    always thought a person could make their own, in small quantities, for their personal use, as long as they did not sell it.

"The U.S. Government regulates distilleries to a high degree and currently does not distinguish its treatment of distilleries in terms of size. This stringent regulation has prevented microdistilling from developing as rapidly as microbrewing which enjoys relatively more relaxed government control. A number of states, such as California, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Utah and Washington, have passed legislation reducing the stringent regulations for small distilleries that were a holdover from prohibition.[1] The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) are responsible for enforcing Federal statutes as they apply to all manufacturers of beverage alcohol."
"The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, statutorily named the Tax and Trade Bureau and frequently shortened to TTB, is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury.  On January 24, 2003, the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (the Act) split functions of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), into two new organizations with separate functions. First, the Act established The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) under the Department of the Treasury. Second, the Act transferred certain law enforcement functions from Treasury to the Department of Justice. The ATF law enforcement functions were transferred to the Justice Department and were renamed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives."  A distilled beverage, spirit, or liquor is an alcoholic beverage containing ethanol that is produced by distilling (i.e., concentrating by distillation) ethanol produced by means of fermenting grain, fruit, or vegetables.[1] This excludes undistilled fermented beverages such as beer, wine, and cider.  The term spirit refers to a distilled beverage that contains no added sugar and has at least 20% alcohol by volume (ABV).

[William]

my grandfather is looking for a recipe to make a mash to make some cherry brandy

Here is the reply to a letter written to a wine making blog, which should answer or at least partially answer your question;
Brandy is essentially a wine that has gone through a distillation process. Distilling is when the alcohol and certain essences are steamed off the wine and collected into a separate container. Alcohol will steam off at a lower temperature than water so by controlling the temperature it is possible to leave the water behind. What you end up with is a liquid that has a much higher alcohol concentration.

This is obviously an over-simplification, but essentially this is how a brandy is brought to life. It is an additional step beyond wine making.

Most people are surprised to know that the brandy is a clear liquid at this point. It taste rather harsh and gives off somewhat of an oily impression in the mouth--something that you definitely would not enjoy. To bring the brandy to a form that you and I would recognize as brandy it must be aged extensively.

Depending on the quality and style of the brandy being made, it will need to be aged anywhere from 3 to 50 years in barrels. The toasting of the inner wall of the barrel is where the brandy will get its familiar color.

So as you can see making brandy takes some serious dedication, maybe even more so than wine making.. I personally leave it to the Hennessy's and Martell's to bring brandy to my world.

It is important to note here that -- unlike wine making -- distilling an alcohol is illegal in the United States unless you have registered with the ATF which means bringing your operation up to their rigorous code. It also involves a tremendous cash bond that basically makes it impossible to impractical for any individual to set up a operation for personal use.
http://www.winemakingblog.com/catagory/recipes.htm

[beowulf]

the method of freezing the wine and draining off any unfrozen liquid is the same as used to make so called ice beers ! such as natural ice , but the real thing is a whole different animal ! : Eisbock is an "ice strong beer," wich sounds both forbidding and inviting. It has a forbidding ring, because it conjures up images of frigid temperatures and ice and snow. Yet, it comes across as inviting, too, because it also conjures up images of winter's antidote: A warming, nourishing, and comforting brew, one that is rich, strong, and rewarding. Both aspects of the Eisbock are, of course, true. Icebocks rank among the world's most potent brews. They are true winter lagers. They gain their strength from being frozen near the end of their maturation period. Because water freezes before alcohol, the chilled brew can be drained off the ice crystals that form in the tank. During this process, the beer loses about 7 to 10% of its water content. As a result, the alcohol concentration in the beer increases, usually to about 10% by volume, about twice as much as the 4.5 to 5.5% of a regular German lager. As members of the Bockbier family, Eisbocks have all the characteristics of a typical strong beer, only more so. They are much maltier and smoother even than the Dopplebocks.

In an Eisbock, you can taste the alcohol, but as a rounded fiery afterglow, not as a harsh, up-front assault on the palate. The mystique of the Eisbock is probably uniquely exemplified by the G'frorns, brewed in the northern Bavarian Kulmbacher AG, the reputed brewery of origin of the Eisbock style. The alcohol-by-volume level of this brew reaches approximately 10%. A rich Eisbock is best sipped like a Sherry, Port, or Madeira; it is never guzzled. Eisbock can be made as a barley-based lager, like the Reichelbräu G'frorns, or as a wheat-based ale, called Weizeneisbock. The Weizeneisbock most readily available in North America is the Schneider Aventinus Weizeneisbock, which  is brewed and then frozen to a strength of 12% alcohol by volume.

[pilgrim]

     Back in 1966-69, while stationed  in Heidelburg, Germany,  there was a Gasthouse, (tavern)  that served Palm Brau Beer,  the alchohol content of that beer was 18%.  was good at end of the month, when low on funds. 

[Red Badger]

We seem to be geting into a grey area here.... and I think we have covered this topic well enough that it answers the legal question that making cherry brandy is not somethng we should do in this day and age... so I am locking the topic.